Boca West Weighs Own Fire-rescue

A first-of-its-kind plan to hire fire-rescue paramedics at private Boca West is stirring up controversy in the country club community.

Boca West's 3,500 homeowners are expected to vote in March on whether to sign a one-year contract with Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue to add a mobile fire station and aid unit.

For a fee of $150 per home per year -- $525,000 total -- the county would place a small mobile fire station in the gated community on Glades Road exclusively to serve Boca West residents.

Many communities, including Boca West, already pay the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office for extra sheriff's patrols. But no other community has seriously considered a similar arrangment for fire-rescue service, said Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Steve Delai.

"They want paramedics and firefighters in their community 24 hours a day," Delai said.

"This would really be our first agreement like this."

Boca West resident Richard Schiff, the community's delegate to the West Boca Community Council, said residents are relatively satisfied with the response time already provided by Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue.

But many people there are aging and fear the consequences if a rescue truck were to get stuck in the heavy traffic on nearby Glades, Powerline or Yamato roads.

"They feel that Boca West has the ability to pay for this extra service," Schiff said. "This would give us the opportunity to have a quicker response."

The Boca West staff, which maintains security and landscaping for the community, first approached Fire-Rescue last spring. Boca West leaders handed out packets of information at a community meeting last week, Schiff said.

The community has split over how to pay for the service. Boca West dues and assessments typically are paid based upon the value of homes, which Schiff said range from $30,000 apartments to $5 million mansions.

But the Boca West Homeowners' Association proposes to charge a flat rate to every unit regardless of value.

"This is creating some tension in the community," Schiff said. "You have a situation that's turning people at Boca West against one another -- and all over money."

Delai said he's not sure whether Boca West's idea will catch on elsewhere, as extra sheriff's patrols did when they were introduced in the mid-1980s.

"A lot of developments contain a lot of seniors," Delai said. "Each community's going to have to decide if this is a priority."